Languages

Research

20 pages, 405 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Enlhet Revelative

by Hannes Kalisch and Andrés Pablo Salanova

Languages 2024, 9(8), 260; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9080260 - 26 Jul 2024

Viewed by 550

This paper describes the Enlhet revelative nooka’ and proposes a unified semantic analysis for it. Prima facie, nooka’ has evidential, mirative, and temporal nuances in its meaning. Against this, we establish that the core meaning of nooka’ is a change in epistemic state, [...] Read more.

This paper describes the Enlhet revelative nooka’ and proposes a unified semantic analysis for it. Prima facie, nooka’ has evidential, mirative, and temporal nuances in its meaning. Against this, we establish that the core meaning of nooka’ is a change in epistemic state, and that the particle is not associated to specific sources of evidence nor to contradicting a previous expectation. The evidential properties of the particle arise from interactions between the time of the event and evidence acquisition time, while any mirative properties of nooka’ are occasional concomitants, but are not necessarily associated with the particle. We show how the evidence acquisition time implicit in nooka’ differs from the main narrative time. Our analysis characterizes nooka’ as a revelative, a category that has been identified in various other languages, but which is still poorly understood. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

59 pages, 2235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Clause-linkage, Embeddedness, and Nominalizations in Chácobo (Pano)

by Adam James Ross Tallman

Languages 2024, 9(3), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9030093 - 11 Mar 2024

Viewed by 1367

Abstract

As with all Pano languages, Chácobo links clauses together through an elaborate system of switch reference clauses. This paper provides a detailed description of switch reference and clause linkage in Chácobo (Pano) from a typological perspective. While previous work on Chácobo and Pano [...] Read more.

As with all Pano languages, Chácobo links clauses together through an elaborate system of switch reference clauses. This paper provides a detailed description of switch reference and clause linkage in Chácobo (Pano) from a typological perspective. While previous work on Chácobo and Pano languages in general describes such clause-linkage strategies as involving subordination, no work has provided a detailed description of the diagnostics for classifying clause-linkage types with clause-linkage strategies in Pano. If these variables are relied on, nearly all clause-linkage strategies in Chácobo fall outside of typical coordination and subordinate patterns. There is also little reason to adopt such a distinction on language-internal grounds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 423 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Orientation of Evidentials in Attitude Contexts: A Case Study Based on Narratives in Paraguayan Guarani

by Roumyana Pancheva and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta

Languages 2024, 9(2), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020044 - 26 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1531

Abstract

This paper examines the orientation of evidentials in complements of attitude verbs, with Paraguayan Guarani evidential ra’e as a case study. It argues that embedded evidentials can be directed either towards the speaker or towards a matrix attitude-holder argument (e.g., the subject of [...] Read more.

This paper examines the orientation of evidentials in complements of attitude verbs, with Paraguayan Guarani evidential ra’e as a case study. It argues that embedded evidentials can be directed either towards the speaker or towards a matrix attitude-holder argument (e.g., the subject of the attitude verb) and that a syntactic representation of the evidence-acquisition event, with its pronominal subject, in the lower end of the CP field, is well-poised to capture this potential ambiguity. Language-particular properties can also play a determining role in the orientation of the embedded evidential, as is the case of the subordinator ha in Paraguayan Guarani. It is argued that this subordinator requires the presence of a Complementizer specified with a (strong) Modal component (which encodes certainty/commitment on the part of the attitude holder with respect to the embedded proposition) and that this property biases the orientation of ra’e towards the matrix attitude-holder argument. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

23 pages, 2305 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The *t-V-ce System of the Carib Languages and the Kuikuro Resultative Participle

by Gelsama Mara Ferreira Dos Santos and Bruna Franchetto

Languages 2024, 9(2), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020034 - 23 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1457

Abstract

In the Kuikuro language (Upper Xingu Carib), the construction tü-/ t-verb-i/-ti/-si/-stress is a reflex of the Carib proto-construction *t-V-ce, often labeled as a ‘participle’. It is a morphological form composed of a prefix and a set of allomorphic suffixes [...] Read more.

In the Kuikuro language (Upper Xingu Carib), the construction tü-/ t-verb-i/-ti/-si/-stress is a reflex of the Carib proto-construction *t-V-ce, often labeled as a ‘participle’. It is a morphological form composed of a prefix and a set of allomorphic suffixes that attach to transitive, intransitive, transitivized, or detransitivized verb stems. In this paper, the construction tü-/ t-verb-i/-ti/-si/-stress is described and analyzed as a resultative denoting a grammatically represented result of an event that is the background of a subsequent foregrounded event. We argue that, in Kuikuro, the participial verb inflection has aspectual value and we define the construction tü-/ t-verb-i/-ti/-si/-stress as participial resultative aspect. Unlike in English, in Kuikuro, an ergative language, the resultative participial forms of transitive and transitivized verb stems license their external arguments. A description of the morphosyntax, semantics, and uses of Kuikuro participial forms precedes a final theoretically based approach that departs from Embick’s analysis of English participles. Our proposal for the analysis of the resultative participles in Kuikuro emphasizes the importance of this phenomenon for a comparison inside the Carib family and for ergative languages regarding the relationship between transitive resultative participles and ergativity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 436 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Factive Entailments and Clausal Complementation in Karitiana

by Karin Vivanco and Maria del Mar Bassa Vanrell

Languages 2023, 8(4), 234; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040234 - 13 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1297

Abstract

Attitude verbs describe mental states of their subject in relation to a proposition codified by their clausal complement. In this paper, we describe the behavior of such verbs in Karitiana, a Tupian language spoken in Brazil. Recently, it has been noted in the [...] Read more.

Attitude verbs describe mental states of their subject in relation to a proposition codified by their clausal complement. In this paper, we describe the behavior of such verbs in Karitiana, a Tupian language spoken in Brazil. Recently, it has been noted in the literature that embedded clauses with nominal features seem to lead to a factive reading of these verbs. In Karitiana, all embedded clauses are nominalized since they lack many clausal features, and conversely exhibit nominal distribution and behavior. We propose a structure with an N head for embedded clauses in Karitiana, which accounts for their morphological behavior and also explains why these constructions behave as strong islands. Judgments of contradiction with attitude verbs of Karitiana were collected and the results show that they fall into two categories: one that obligatorily entails the truth of the embedded clause and another that favors it, but that does not require it obligatorily. This shows that nominalization of embedded clauses seems to be tied to the presence of factive entailments, but this alone is not a sufficient condition to force a factive reading of the matrix attitude verb. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

16 pages, 1579 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pluractionality of Events in Macuxi: A Morpho-Syntactic and Semantic Analysis

by Gregory Antono, Francisco França Miguel Makusi, Isabella Coutinho Costa and Suzi Lima

Languages 2023, 8(4), 225; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040225 - 22 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1526

Abstract

This paper discusses how pluractionality is expressed in Macuxi (Cariban), a South American Indigenous language spoken in Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. Cross-linguistically, the multiplicity of an action can be expressed by means of specialized pluractional morphemes affixed on verbs, via adverbs, or by [...] Read more.

This paper discusses how pluractionality is expressed in Macuxi (Cariban), a South American Indigenous language spoken in Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. Cross-linguistically, the multiplicity of an action can be expressed by means of specialized pluractional morphemes affixed on verbs, via adverbs, or by reduplication. Previous work on Macuxi claimed that the iterative suffix -pîtî indicates a multiplicity of actions, whereas verbal reduplication is mentioned but scarcely described, and is associated with the interpretation of multiple events. Based on data from context-based elicitation, we show that verbal reduplication is impacted by Aktionsart (activity and semelfactive verbs, which denote unbounded, atelic events, have a higher tendency to be reduplicated) and that reduplicated verbs are often associated with an intensity interpretation. On the other hand, the suffix -pîtî functions as a pluractional marker that encodes a multiplicity of events and is predictable via a Lasersohnian analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

36 pages, 652 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Forms and Functions of Switch Reference in A’ingae

by Scott AnderBois, Daniel Altshuler and Wilson D. L. Silva

Languages 2023, 8(2), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8020137 - 26 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2192

Abstract

This paper examines switch reference (SR) in A’ingae, an understudied isolate language from Amazonian Ecuador. We present a theoretically informed survey of SR, identifying three distinct uses of switch reference: in clause chaining, adverbial clauses, and so-called ‘bridging’ clause linkage. We describe the [...] Read more.

This paper examines switch reference (SR) in A’ingae, an understudied isolate language from Amazonian Ecuador. We present a theoretically informed survey of SR, identifying three distinct uses of switch reference: in clause chaining, adverbial clauses, and so-called ‘bridging’ clause linkage. We describe the syntactic and semantic properties of each use in detail, the first such description for A’ingae, showing that the three constructions differ in important ways. While leaving a full syntactic analysis to future work, we argue that these disparate properties preclude a syntactic account that unifies these three constructions to the exclusion of other environments without SR. Conversely, while a full semantic account is also left to future work, we suggest that a unified semantic account in terms of discourse coherence principles appears more promising. In particular, we propose that switch reference in A’ingae occurs in all and only the constructions that are semantically restricted to non-structuring coordinating coherence relations in the sense of Segmented Discourse Representation Theory. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 875 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Expression of Time in Amahuaca Switch-Reference Clauses

by Emily Clem

Languages 2023, 8(2), 134; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8020134 - 26 May 2023

Viewed by 1570

Abstract

Many languages of lowland South America mark remoteness distinctions in their TAM systems. In Amahuaca (Panoan; Peru) multiple remoteness distinctions are made in the past and the future. I argue that the temporal remoteness morphemes (TRMs) of Amahuaca can be understood as indications [...] Read more.

Many languages of lowland South America mark remoteness distinctions in their TAM systems. In Amahuaca (Panoan; Peru) multiple remoteness distinctions are made in the past and the future. I argue that the temporal remoteness morphemes (TRMs) of Amahuaca can be understood as indications of the remoteness of the event time relative to the utterance time in matrix environments. In dependent clauses, however, the picture is more complicated. By exploring adjunct switch-reference clauses, I show that TRMs in dependent clauses display a previously unreported ambiguity reminiscent of ambiguities found with adjunct tense. Specifically, they can relate the time of the adjunct clause event to the time of the matrix event or to the utterance time. I suggest that this ambiguity may arise from the availability of multiple interpretation sites for adjunct TRMs, with the possible interpretations being constrained by the temporal semantics of switch-reference markers themselves. This work thus contributes to the empirical understanding of how TRMs are interpreted in dependent clauses, suggesting interesting potential parallels to the interpretation of adjunct tense. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond)

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Current Studies on Morpho-Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: A View from the South American Lowlands and Beyond

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

Published Papers (8 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI